


Picture Perfect

by FrsdGirl



Series: I Thought Romance Was a Foregone Conclusion... [3]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Fluff, I'm a sucker for HS Phineas and the longing, Oblivious Isabella, One Shot, PICTURE DISTRIBUTION DAY, Some angst, what can i say, yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26598682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrsdGirl/pseuds/FrsdGirl
Summary: It's Picture Distribution Day and the students at Danville High are spending the afternoon swapping, bidding and customizing their glossy prizes away... All but Phineas, who has another dilemma on his mind. Namely, how he can ask Isabella for one of her pictures without making it completely obvious he's in love with her.
Relationships: Phineas Flynn/Isabella Garcia-Shapiro
Series: I Thought Romance Was a Foregone Conclusion... [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931140
Comments: 18
Kudos: 55





	Picture Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO! Thank you so much to everyone who has encouraged me to continue this series. Every comment, kudos and hit just warms my heart. 
> 
> Without further ado... Let the fic begin!
> 
> Whenever I see, someone on the street,  
> I remind them that I don't own anything...  
> And my conversation won't be complete  
> Till I mention Dan and Swampy!

On a fair February day in spring, the students at Danville High were about to embark on an annual tradition. Today was not Picture Day, no, something even better than that. Picture _Distribution_ Day. The day students swapped pictures with each other throughout class and blatantly ignored the fact that their guardians and parents had paid exorbitant amounts of money for the photo packets. And it seemed like Mr. Baugh’s seventh period Chemistry class would valiantly continue the tradition.

Mr. Baugh was looking up real estate prices in Australia while his students happily cut away at the photo sheets. Really, it was a win-win for everyone.

“Alright we’re up to three fruit roll ups. Three fruit roll ups, who can top that?”

Buford’s voice rang across the room, but Mr. Baugh didn’t bother looking up. This wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary behavior for the ex-bully.

Buford’s antics were another tradition of these hallowed halls. After accidentally taking a terrible picture in middle school, Buford found a way to turn his misfortune into riches. Now, rather than allowing chance and the camera to catch him off guard, Buford purposefully wrecked his picture every year. How he managed to sneak a wombat (or even find one in the first place) into school was a mystery, but the results were amazing. The picture was an exact copy of a meme from years ago. It featured Buford, dressed in 80s exercise gear, holding the wombat entirely too close to his face while rollerblading. It was a work of art like no other, and the bids from his peers reflected the quality.

“A plate of brownies! Freshly baked, brought to you tomorrow morning!” Irving shouted. He was trying to gather materials for an upcoming Friends of Phineas and Ferb exhibit.

“Oh, fanboy is getting serious!” Buford bellowed, egging on the other bidders.

Across the classroom, an entirely different scene was playing out. The Fireside Girl alums and Ferb were discussing layout options for a custom yearbook they wanted to make, exclusive to their friend group.

“Homecoming is going to look weird next to the giant hamster wheel.” Adyson said, moving around the mockups.

Ferb glanced over her shoulder, pointing at one of the pictures.

“I know, but we don’t have any with the giant hamster.” She answered.

They all nodded, as if a disappearing giant hamster was a regular part of anyone’s day.

A couple seats down from them, Phineas and Isabella were the only ones in the class actually working on the homework. Well, at least one of them was. The other one, the red-headed one, was nervously shooting glances at his table partner.

_This is dumb, I should just ask her._ He thought to himself, drumming his pencil on his desk. _She’s already given a picture to every single one of the Fireside Girls, maybe she won’t find it weird if I ask for one._

“This is wrong.” Isabella said to her paper, frowning.

Phineas flinched. If Isabella could suddenly read minds this was going to be a problem.

“What?” He asked.

“They don’t have cutonium on here.” Isabella answered, showing Phineas the periodic table in their textbook.

Sure enough, the element was missing from the far right corner.

Phineas flipped to the front of the book.

“Ah, it was published ten years ago. That’s why.”

She murmured something back and kept working.

Phineas turned in his chair, calling out to his brother.

“Print new Chemistry books, make a note Ferb.”

Ferb nodded at him without looking up.

_We still have the industrial printer from Platypus Publishing, if licensing doesn’t give us any push back we could have everything updated by next weekend—oh wait, not the focus right now._

Phineas glanced at the stack of photos at Isabella’s elbow. He was trying to figure out how to ask her for one without making it too obvious that he was, you know, completely in love with her.

_I could say it’s for an invention. A big idea. I wish I had gotten one for the yearbook but Gretchen was too fast. Maybe we could make another giant scrapbook like we did for Candace... but that was for Jeremy, she’ll figure out how I feel if I do that…_

Isabella filled out the last answer to her homework and shut her book. She wasn’t one to avoid in-class collaboration, but she had three meetings and soccer practice after school today, so any chance to get homework done early was appreciated. She turned around, looking at their other friends.

“How far along have they gotten?” Isabella asked Phineas.

“What?” He said, blinking a couple of times.

She titled her head to the side, studying him. He had an odd expression on his face, almost like he’d been caught doing something wrong.

“You’ve been uncharacteristically quiet today. Everything okay?” She asked.

He looked away. Exactly what was he supposed to say?

_Yeah, everything is okay, except I love you and I think about it all the time and looking at you is like looking at the sun, hope we can still be friends? Yeah, no. That’s probably not such a good option._

The only person who knew about his feelings for Isabella was Candace and it’s not like he even directly told her. His sister had figure it out on her own when their weekly calls had turned into weekly relationship advice sessions. After using ‘someone’ as a filler for almost half a year, Candace had unceremoniously dropped all pretenses and forced Phineas to change it ‘Isabella.’ Considering only one ‘someone’ wore a pink bow, lived across the street and knew the detailed inner workings of a combustion engine, it wasn’t a hard case to solve. But still.

“Yeah, I’m good.” He answered, scratching his ear.

“You’re lying.” She countered, eyes narrowing.

He lowered his arm.

“I was, uh, just looking at the pictures and was thinking you know... we’ve all grown up a lot.” He finished lamely.

Isabella looked at him for a moment longer, and then sighed. 

“Yeah, a lot has changed.” She said.

It didn’t happen often, but every once in a while Isabella would get strangely serious. Sometimes it felt like she had grown up a lot faster than he did and he hated the thought that she may outgrow him one day. But then he would see her get caught up in the excitement of a big idea and that same childlike glee would flash across her face. As long as she kept participating in their big ideas, he knew things between them would be okay. Even if they were growing up.

He nudged her slightly and she smiled, her cheeks turning a bit pinker.

“Not that much has changed.” Phineas said, scooting closer to her and pointing at their friends. “We’re all together.”

“SOLD TO THE FANBOY WITH THE CHOCOLATE CAKE!” Buford yelled. Polite applause rang out as Isabella laughed.

“And he certainly hasn’t changed.” She added.

“Ferb still doesn’t talk much.”

“I miss Baljeet, though.”

“I do too.” Phineas finished.

Baljeet was on a fast track to a PhD and had left the group after middle school. It wasn’t the same without him, but at least he still lived close by and could hang out with them after school.

“But we’re both still here. And still best friends.” He said.

“Ferb’s your best friend.” Isabella countered.

“Ferb’s my brother. And the best brother I could ask for, but you’re my best friend.”

He placed an arm behind her chair and then froze. It was a reflex, he hadn’t consciously done it, and he held his breath as she leaned back. She didn’t seem to notice or care though, and he sighed in relief. It was a good thing she was so oblivious.

Isabella turned to look at him. Their faces were closer than usual and suddenly every coherent thought in Phineas’ head abruptly left. It took everything for him to stay in the moment, to keep from losing it, to…

Suddenly, Isabella tilted her head to the side, the way she always did when she had a question on her mind and _ohhhh_ he really wished she wouldn’t do that because every time she did it was so adorable and so _her_ and… he really had to keep it together.

“I’m really your best friend?” She asked.

Phineas gulped. It suddenly occurred to him that maybe she didn’t _want_ to be his best friend, or maybe she didn’t consider him a best friend, she had a lot of friends… 

“Well, you can be _one_ of my best friends.” He said, looking away because he couldn’t look at her and do this. “You know. You don’t have to have just one best friend. That’s the great things about best friends, you can have multiple best friends. And you can be one of my best friends, but it doesn’t mean I think I’m one of your best friends, you know, I didn’t mean—“

She placed her hand over his, laughing.

“Phineas, of course you’re my best friend.”

If he could have discreetly pumped his fists into the air and danced a jig on the table, he would have done it. But he settled for squeezing her hand back in return. Feeling braver, he glanced over at the small stack of pictures.

“So, I know you gave pictures to some of the Fireside Girls, cause you all are friends and you swap pictures, and if we’re best friends, couldIhaveapicture?”

He didn’t take his eyes off the little stack, holding his breath.

“You want a picture of me?”

Here it was. The moment of truth. He chanced a look at her face. There was something almost like hope in her eyes.

“Yeah?” He answered.

Isabella silently took one from the stack and handed it to him. He beamed at her, taking out his binder and carefully slipping it in.

“Sweet, my desk in my room has pictures of Candace and Ferb and my family and I have an old picture of us from several summers ago, you know the one, it was taken after we got back from flying, or really more accurately _bouncing,_ around the world, but I’ve wanted to update that one for awhile now so this should be _perfect_.”

He looked up and Isabella was staring at him with a goofy grin on her face. He didn’t know why his ramblings would elicit such a cute smile but he mirrored her expression back at her.

They looked at each for a second. And then another second. And then several more.

Isabella broke it off first, clearing her throat.

“Since we’re best friends—“

“The best of friends, yes—“ He added, nodding excitedly.

“Uh, could I have one of your pictures?”

He just stared at her. For a second. And then another second more.

She wanted a picture of him? Isabella Garcia-Shapiro was sitting here asking for a picture of _him_?

_Best. Day. Ever._

“Yeah!” He practically shouted. “I only have wallet sized ones, the eight by ten is kinda big and my mom will notice if I give it away and Ferb has his, so I hope that’s okay...”

He trailed off, handing her the small photo.

Isabella took out her wallet and put it inside.

…

She was going to have his picture in her wallet.

She would probably take it out after a week or something, but for a week she would be walking around every day with _his_ picture in _her_ wallet.

He wanted to celebrate but how does one even celebrate exchanging pictures? Is there a greeting card for that kind of thing?

He turned to ask if she wanted to make an old timey picture slide projector tonight, but her attention was back on their friends. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and he knew she was about to step in and fix something.

_That’s okay._ He thought to himself. _I’ll build it as a surprise for her. So when she comes home from soccer today, everything will be all set up. Then she can just enjoy it, no building required._

Isabella got up and walked over to their friends, making suggestions on the typeface as she did. They all groaned and nodded in agreement, as if the answer had been staring them in the face this whole time. Phineas smiled at the familiar scene in front of him. He would jump in soon too. For one, why use an existing font when they could make up a whole new one, right? But he wanted to take a moment to himself. He opened his binder and glanced down at the picture. He was normally really brave, but he didn’t think he would be brave enough to ask her for the picture. And now it was in his binder. Soon it would sit on his desk. She would be there, smiling at him, through every big idea and blueprint revision. It was almost too good to be true.

He sighed to himself.

_Yeah._ He thought. _Best day ever._

**Author's Note:**

> THERE IT IS! 
> 
> What cinnamon rolls these two are. 
> 
> The bit about Candace was inspired by authenticcadence18, who asked if Phineas ever told his sister about his crush on the girl next door. In my head she's the only one who knew until Act Your Age cause Phineas is a patent pending romantic mess. How Ferb didn't know is beyond me, but I'll try to sort through that conundrum on another day. 
> 
> THANKS FOR READING FRIENDS! Let me know if you wanna see anything specific or have prompts. 
> 
> BYEEEE


End file.
